A trio of inspectors general told the House Committee on Oversight & Government Reform today about obstacles they routinely encounter in obtaining records as part of their investigations into potential wrongdoing.

Even before recent swell of cyber attacks, the FBI was looking to beef up its cyber division to help better handle such threats. The agency is in the midst of a drive to find and hire more cybersecurity experts and turn them into special agents. Applications are due Jan. 20. Robert Anderson is executive assistant director of the FBI. He joined Tom Temin on the Federal Drive to explain the push for new cyber agents.

The FBI rapidly rolled out new devices-the vast majority running hardened Android operating systems-to the bureau's 56 field offices over the last four months. But officials are experimenting with commercial mobile devices for secret and top-secret data too.

Leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee said Wednesday
they were seeking answers from the Obama administration about federal law
enforcement's use of surveillance technology that sweeps up basic cellphone data.

Kshemendra Paul, the program manager of the Information Sharing Environment, said his organization's tools and techniques are creating collaboration and trust among federal, state and local law enforcement officers. The Boston Marathon bombing is the most recent example of just how much the way intelligence is shared among authorities.

Whether or not North Korea was behind the recent cyber attack on Sony Pictures, its level of sophistication suggests it was sponsored by a country, not a group of hackers. And the FBI believes the same attack could just as easily have penetrated most sophisticated networks, including government ones.

FBI Director James Comey will deliver a keynote counterterrorism speech in New York City at Fordham Law School on Monday. With the rise of Islamic militants in Iraq and Syria, international terrorism remains a key national security and law enforcement dilemma for the U.S. and its allies.

A former FBI counterintelligence special agent was charged with 11 counts of conspiracy, eight counts of honest services wire fraud, obstruction of a grand jury proceeding and obstruction of an agency proceeding.

Public corruption is a top priority for the FBI. Agents look for everything from
local motor vehicle officials fudging things for a case of whiskey to federal
officials who might be on the take. That includes keeping resources on the
southern border, watching border patrol agents. Joseph Campbell is assistant
director for the Criminal Division at the FBI. On the Federal Drive with Tom Temin, he explained how public
corruption cases are generated.

The FBI will channel more people and resources into its Pittsburgh office. It's a reward for the cybersecurity team that's credited for catching five Chinese military leaders stealing trade secrets, and a Russian-based cyber crime ring that stole about $100 million from banks around the world. Michael McKeown is supervisory special agent for the Associate Division Counsel, part of the FBI Cyber Initiative and Resource Fusion Unit based in Pittsburgh. On In Depth with Francis Rose, he explained the cybersecurity effort that earned the extra resources.

A former special agent in charge of the FBI's Milwaukee field office used extremely poor judgment in a disability lawsuit. That's according to the Justice Department's inspector general. It looked into the case of Justin Slaby, a service-disabled Iraq veteran who was kicked out of the FBI training academy. The IG found that Teresa Carlson improperly tried to influence the deposition of the agent responsible for training Slaby. You might call it a lesson learned the hard way. In this week's legal loop, Attorney Debra Roth tells Tom Temin on the Federal Drive how supervisors should treat employees who are being deposed.

In 2013, the U.S. Marshals Service sold more than 22,000 seized assets for a total of $2 billion. In part one of our special report, Rainmakers and Money Savers, Federal News Radio goes behind the scenes of the Justice Department's asset forfeiture programs to examine the work federal employees are doing on a daily basis, resulting in billions of dollars going straight into the federal coffers.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Government Operations wants to know how agencies plan to dispose of and consolidate more than 7,000 federal properties worth $350 billion. On the same day, the FBI announced the finalists for the site of its consolidated relocation.

For her efforts in bringing to justice four prison guards who beat and murdered an inmate, the Partnership for Public Service recently named Susan Hanson as one of the finalists for the 2014 Homeland Security and Law Enforcement Medal.